When They Dropped her case
by KyraBear
Summary: Scully has just recieved news that the higher-ups have dropped her sister's murder case, so she goes for comfort from the only person she knows who will be there for her
1. 2 Am visitor

Mulder sat up at a sudden knock at the door. He looked towards his clock and read the hands on the face, 2:30, in the morning. Mulder groaned, he blinked his eyes still bleary from sleep. He heard the knock again, more urgent this time and he swung his legs over the edge of his bed. "Coming" he said making his way to the door, walking gingerly down the hall afraid he might run into something in the semi-darkness.

There was another knock on the door, softer this time as if the person on the other side had given up hope for the door to be opened. Mulder looked through his peephole but saw nothing, no one stood in the hall. His eyebrows pulled together in his confusion. Fox opened his door, still locked with the steel chain; he was surprised to see a woman leaning up against his door. Her knees pulled up to her chest and her arms wrapped around her as if to keep her from falling apart.

"Scully?" he asked softly, recognizing her bouncing red curls. Scully lifted her head off her knees. "Mulder." She said and he shut the door, unlocked the chain and opened the door back up to find Scully on her feet standing before him.

She was wearing a black skirt, but one, that Mulder noted with interest, much shorter than her professional attire. She wore a button down blouse, the top two buttons undone and her left shoe was in her had, heel obviously broken. Mulder blinked, "Come in Scully," he opened the door wider and gestured for her to enter his apartment. He shut the door behind her and locked the door once again. He scratched at his chest were one of his old New York Yankee t shirts was wrinkling up. He turned to Scully still surprised at her sudden appearance. "Scully…" she stood in the middle of his living room, she kicked off her other shoe and shifted her weight debating on whether or not she should sit down on Mulder's couch. "Scully are you okay?" Mulder said taking in Scully's complete appearance, her hair had been ruffled, it hung out of place, stray hairs everywhere. She wore a dark maroon red lipstick, smudged at the corner of her lip, a brand new bruise forming on the edge of her cheekbones.

She released a shaky breath, "I didn't, have anywhere else to go." She said quietly. Mulder looked at her wondering what it was that had happened that left her so unprofessional. "Mulder, Mulder they closed the book, they cut the case."

Mulder took a few steps closer trying to make sense of her under breath ramblings. "Dana… I'm not sure that I quite understand."

"My sister, they dropped her case." Scully wailed out, the beginning of tears collecting in her eyes. Mulder took her hand, "Dana… I'm so sorry."

She yanked her hand out of his. "They dropped it Mulder! Like she was nothing, like it meant nothing!" Mulder realized then that his partner had been drinking. He could smell the alcohol on her breath.

"Scully? Did you drive here?"

"No." she said angry that he had thought her that irresponsible. "Mulder, I'm not stupid." She said and a single tear fell down her cheek. Mulder lifted his hand and wiped the tear off her yellowing bruise, he stroked her face brushing her cheek softly. She met his eyes, letting him into the walls that she had built so steadily around her for the past few years of their partnership. She stopped, pushing him back out from her emotions. She couldn't let him in, not now. She pulled away, "I'm disgusted with myself Mulder, I should really go" "Scully… Dana… No" he grabbed her wrist and pulled her into a hug, "Scully you are a strong capable woman, but no one should expect you to not have feelings, to not react to a situation that breaks down things you hold dearly, no one can just sit through that." He said into her hair.

Scully nestled into Mulder's shoulder. She raised her hands and wrapped them around his neck,. Mulder stood there for a moment and then realized that his partner was in fact, still drunk.

"Scully, how much have you been drinking?" he said pulling away from her.

Scully pulled away not looking at Mulder, she looked at her feet instead and then at the surroundings of the room.

"Scully?" Mulder said.

"Fox. I have not been drinking." She said batting her eyes and giving him a pouting bottom lip in a coy sort of way.

"Dana.." Mulder started to say, she slipped back into his arms and angled herself at him in such a way that Mulder had to look away. Mulder shook his head, and pushed her out of his arms gently.

"No Scully, you're not thinking straight." He said and he took a step away from her, Fox took a breath, he wanted to wrap his arms back around her and hold her until morning, but he knew that he couldn't, not tonight, not while she was in this state. He knew that she needed respect, and that she wouldn't respect herself ever again, not if he pulled her back into his arms. Not this way, not if she would only want this if she was drunk.

Scully finished pulling away, she put the walls back up around her heart, realizing now that she needed Mulder's respect more than this, this affection that she was looking for. She turned away from him, and took two steps back "Mulder-" she started hoping that she could apologize in a way, with dignity. Then Scully fell back into his coffee table, she slammed into the corner, and then to the leg as she fell. Mulder heard the crack of wood against her body.

"I can't go back, not where- not where they hurt her." She said so quietly that Fox barely heard her. He picked her up as the tears welled in her eyes. He laid her down on the couch and shuffled through his closet to find his blankets.

Mulder came back out of his closet and tucked her into the blanket. He climbed over her so his back was against the rough pillows, and wrapped his arm around her waist, speaking into her hair as she cried. "Scully, you're safe here, I won't let anyone hurt you.  
Ever."

Scully woke up the next morning in apartment 42, on Mulder's couch. She blinked her eyes open and lifted her head off the pillow that Mulder had given her last night. She closed her eyes to a pounding headache.

The smell of bacon assaulted her nose. Her stomach rolled and bile rose in her throat. Scully groaned and wrapped her arms around her stomach hoping she could get over this sudden sickness.

"Mulder." She groaned peaking through one eye, half pried open.

Mulder stood at the stove, he wore an apron over his worn pajamas and had a spatula in his hand.

"Oh, Morning Scully." He said a smile forming on his lips. "Ow." He exclaimed when bacon grease bit at his fingers. He pulled the last sizzling piece from the hot pan and wrapped them in a paper towel.

"Breakfast?" Mulder asked Scully as she pulled herself off the couch. Her head spun and she held onto the wall to keep herself from falling. Mulder walked over to Scully and watched as she fished around under the couch to find her shoes. "No… uh, Mulder, I actually, think I want to go home." Scully said as she got up off the floor, not meeting her partner's eyes.

Mulder nodded, a little sadly, " If-" he stopped clearing his throat, "If that's, what it is that you would like to do." He closed his eyes and let out a sigh, he wanted for his partner to stop fighting him for a moment and let him be there for her.

"I- uh, yeah…" Scully said, holding her head in one hand. She started to walk towards the apartment door, she opened it, resting her hand against the door frame, her shoes in the other. She looked back and saw her partner, Fox, looking at her with concern in her eyes. She waited, hesitated, the walls she had built had worked so well, protected her from pain, but she could feel even now Mulder chipping away at them.

Scully turned back to Mulder, taking a few steps to meet him in the middle of the room. "Thanks, Mulder, for everything last night." She said and she kissed his cheek, then she walked to the already hanging open door. " See, you at work," Mulder said as she shut the door behind her, "And I'm sure that we won't ever mention this morning, ever." He said under his breath. And he went back to making his pancakes as the smell of smoke filled his room.


	2. 42

Dana Scully opened the door to her apartment after three unsuccessful tries. Her thin fingers probed the dark searching for the light switch that seemed to so easily elude her grasp. The living room filled with the yellow glow of her dying lamp. Dana shut the door behind her methodically dropping her broken heels to the side of the welcome mat. She dropped her coat much in the same fashion, her mind someplace else, safe, warm, loved.

_She picked up the stiletto heels she swore she would never wear and slipped the straps up over her ankles, the rough leather brushed against her soft un-calloused skin. A tear fell down her pale porcelain cheek as she remembered who swore up and down these shoes were so "Dana". She brushed it aside, determined, if only for tonight, to forget._

Dana curled up on her couch in a blanket, not reading the book she held in her lap, lost in her own head. A bumped sounded across the flat, and she looked around, pointedly anywhere but where she knew the red stain had been left on her carpet. Dana closed her eyes as tears fell down her bruised cheeks. She sat trying to sort out all of last night, to early this morning, especially her exuberant partner, and the things she might have done.

_Dana waved over a cab and slipped into the back, her already too-short skirt riding up her legs. "Where to miss?" the driver asked behind a pair of dark shades. She opened her mouth to give him Mulder's address, but then closed her mouth again and sighed. "The nearest bar." She said softly while absent mindedly fixing her skirt. The Cab Driver opened his mouth to comment but then thought better of it and pulled away from the curve, passing one, two, three, trashy bars before finding one he thought suitable for this woman, he recognized as Agent Scully from the F.B.I. All the while she lay back in the cool cushions, fiddling with the top buttons to her blouse._

Scully walked out of her bathroom towel drying her hair, the short red bangs clumping and falling across her forehead. The sun had broken free of the night and rose up, rays seeping through the transparent white curtains. The golden light dancing off the wine glass she had left on the coffee table. She pulled her robe tighter around her, and closed her eyes against the insistent pounding in her head. Walking over to where her phone sat plugged into the wall; she shuffled in her fluffy clippers, to check what she had missed in a day. Five missed messages. She sighed and dialed her voice mail.

_She threw down cash in the back of the cab, with a small bob of her head to the driver. The bar was lit up, the neon signs attracting drunks like moths to a fire. Making a quick impulse she popped open the top button to her blouse, feeling already a little reckless, hoping it would take away from the depression that threatened to drown her. Dana pushed the doors open, taking a deep breath to the smell of too many bodies and stale liquor. She pulled out a stool to the bar and slipped in. "Hey" the bar tender said to her with a wink. Dana blinked in surprise, flirting was the last thing she expected tonight " Hi" she said softly tucking her silky hair behind her left ear, sitting up straighter in anticipation for the drink, she ordered, to slide across the marble counter into her hand._

Still listening to her voice messages Dana turned on her blinker waiting in the left lane of the street. In total there had been two calls from Skinner, one from her mother, one from her brother and one from Mulder. "Scully, I'm so sorry about this tragedy-" Skinner started but she deleted it before he could go on. "Dana, honey-" Click and her mother's voice was gone too. She deleted her brothers without even listening; he never understood anything about her life, cross about the medical training, and even worse about the Bureau. "Agent Scully. I need you in the office." Skinners gruff voice barked from the little speaker and she could imagine his eyebrows pulled together as he tried to call her again and again with no answer. Dana took a deep breath, the only one left was Mulder. Mulder.

_Drink after drink, sitting there on the bar stool unaware as more and more men made their way to see the " sexy drunk red head" as they called her. Dana counted her glasses with a laugh. Five she though with a laugh, fix it with five. She laughed and laughed blissfully unaware. Slipping into a world where she didn't know, know that her sister was dead, murdered, where she could just laugh like everything was alright. Slipping farther and farther into this blissfully happy world full of giggles and drinks, and men who gave her all their attention instead of chasing down UFO's. Laughing and ordering yet another drink and that's when she felt the hand on her thigh, dangerously high._

Dana twisted her hands nervously as she waited in the elevator, alone, it seemed like she had been for a long time. Waiting as the elevator took the long trip down to the basement where she was condemned to work, down to the basement where she had to confront her partner, boss and emotions. And all she got in return was the aging elevator music that brought her out of her mind. The door opened and her heart raced, but it was only Skinner's secretary who entered. They continued down the trip that never seemed to end. The secretary broke the silence clearing her throat and then saying. "I'm really sorry Scully, about your sister." "Yeah." Dana managed to choke out before she got off, me too. She thought as yet another tear rolled down her cheek and a lump grew in her throat. She rebuked herself for acting so emotionally at the Bureau, the place she most needed to be in control.

_Scully twisted away from the rough hands trying to pull her along. "Come on, sweet heart" his voice said close to her ear as she tried move, scratching her arms on the brick of the wall behind her. She thought about screaming and sucked in a breath to let out a piercing screech when his lips pressed against hers. Even dulled with alcohol, Scully's self-defense training kicked in and within a few quick moves he was off of her. She turned to run, until his fist popped out of nowhere, slamming against her right cheek, dazed she fell to the ground, the smell of rot and week old garbage meeting her nose. He pulled her up by her throat and pushed her back against the wall, obviously angered by her retaliation. One of the men from the bar, she noted staring into his face as he huffed chest rising and falling, the one who had had the grabby hands. After the world stopped spinning, and her ears stopped ringing she pulled off her shoe. Swinging it across his face, breaking the heel which now hung limp barely attached to the sole. He grunted in pain and fell with a thud, ripping her blouse, his hand still caught in the line of buttons._

She opened the door, taking a deep breath, waiting for worst, but Skinner was nowhere to be found, just Mulder sitting in his chair, head bent over some new case he would throw himself into so deeply that he would lose sight of himself. Her heart clenched and her mouth suddenly dry she walked into the room. He looked up and flashed her one of his school boy smile, and for a moment she thought everything was going to be okay. That fantasy fell in rubble around her when she heard the door open and Skinner walk in, "Agent Scully" his voice thundered against her tender ears left from last night. "Where have you been?" she turned ready to apologize and take her punishment, when Mulder cut her off. "Chasing down a lead, _sir_" his voice holding just the smallest hint of sarcasm, "She's just come back from the lab with information vital to the case, she left her phone here actually." Scully looked up into Skinner's eyes and knew he saw through the story Mulder was trying to spin, but all he said was, "Alright, Mulder" he nodded, "Scully." Another nod, "Make sure you take care of your phone." His voice carried a tone that implied when he said_ phone_ he meant_heart;_ and with that he was gone. Scully blinked, and looked over at Mulder confused but, he just flashed her another smile.

_Dana Scully, slowly losing consciousness began to run from the alley way not caring about getting wet now that the rain had begun to pour . Slipping past houses and their porch lights shining on her face, to bus stops, every time wondering if she wait and just ride away, from the pain and the lies. She walked out into the middle of the road, not registering the yellow lights popping out in the dark, a horn blared and she jumped just a little. "Agent Scully?" the Cab Driver called and she recognized him as the taxi driver that drove her to the pub. He came out of the car and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her into the dry cab, he shut the door and walked back to his side of the car. "Where to miss?" he asked as he blasted the heater._

Mulder stood up from the desk as soon as the door shut behind Skinner. He looked uncertain, unsure of what to say, but he just handed her a manila folder, acting as if nothing had happened the night before. Something inside her slipped, and her throat grew tight her eyes brimming with tears that seemed to never end. She was so tired of crying, of being sad of emotions she couldn't control. Mulder looked up from his copy of the file and saw the look on her face. He stood up his chair groaning and screeching. Before Dana could move away or protest his arms were wrapped around her and her tears were soaking into his shirt. "shhhh….." he said softly and kissed her hair, "shhhhh Dana." He pulled away slightly and brushed away her tears before kissing her as softly as he could manage, he pulled her back to his chest his chin resting on her fierce red hair. Dana lifted up her hand and held the tips of her finger to her lips as if she could hold his kiss there. And for the first time, in a long time, she felt at home.

_"Where to?" he asked again his voice soft, "Home?". _Home?_ Dana thought, where is home, what is home? Dana nodded her head to her own thoughts, she needed someone to be with, she couldn't go back home, not now, not when the carpet still filled her with dread and guilt. With a decision, she said, "Yeah. Home." and gave him Mulder's address._

_Tip toeing down Mulder's hall she looked at herself in the mirror, _what a mess_, she thought_, what an emotional broken mess. _Scully knocked on Mulder's door, her knuckles hurting from the night she had behind her. Knocking again she looked up at his door. 42. The bronze stood against the dark of the wood. 42. And she knew that Mulder would answer, no matter how late, he would always be there. Always._


End file.
